A large portion of the world's population relies on solid fuels for cooking, such as collected woody sticks. These fuels are frequently burned using indoor cookstoves, which release smoke and other harmful compounds (e.g., carbon monoxide). This can be a significant health and safety hazard, causing illness and premature death in populations that have few cooking or heating alternatives. Thus, there is a need for cookstoves which can burn solid fuels such as biomass with lower emission of particulate matter and harmful gases.
One method of reducing indoor air pollution is the use of top-lit updraft (TLUD) stoves, in which fuel is burned to produce combustible gases, those gases are mixed with air entering the stove, and the mixture undergoes combustion with low smoke emission. However, TLUD stoves have limitations in day-to-day use by individuals. In a TLUD stove, the user places a set amount of fuel into the bottom of the stove, the fuel is lit, and a cooking apparatus is placed on top of the stove for use. The user cannot tend to the fuel during use, but rather is restricted to the amount of fuel that was placed in the TLUD prior to lighting. In addition, the user must often process the fuel, such as chopping or cutting into smaller pieces, in order to fit fuel into the stove. Tending the fuel during use could allow the user to control, for example, the duration of cooking time, preventing the waste of burning fuel past the need for the stove. A cookstove able to accommodate large pieces of fuel with minimal or no processing, such as gathered logs or branches, would save time and effort by the user. Thus, what is needed in the art are cookstoves which can burn fuel efficiently and with low emission of particulate matter and harmful gases, in which the cookstove can accommodate fuel with minimal processing and that can be tended by the user during use.